Trump Suffers BIGGEST Legal Smackdown Of His 2nd Term

The International Trade Court struck down Donald Trump’s emergency declaration that he used as justification for his trade war. This is the biggest legal blow that Trump has suffered since his second term began, but the fight is not over yet. The administration is going to challenge this ruling, which could either put an end to the tariffs, or give him more power than ever. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

On Wednesday of this week, a three judge panel at the US Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that Donald Trump's trade war, specifically him invoking his emergency powers, 'cause it was an economic emergency to put tariffs in place, was not valid. Effectively striking down Donald Trump's main tool that he is using to unilaterally put tariffs on other countries, or at least the goods coming into the United States from the other countries that we ultimately end up paying for. So here's the thing. This does not kill Donald Trump's trade war, uh, in its entirety. In fact, not all of the tariffs that he has put in place were put in place using this emergency power that he gave himself by declaring a national emergency. So it only technically would affect, uh, some of the tariffs, technically, most of the tariffs. However, that decision is not quite yet enforceable because the Trump administration immediately appealed the decision as, uh, former prosecutor Joyce Vance pointed out, you're always prepared when you know you're gonna lose.

And that's how they were able to appeal it so quickly. Immediately after this decision came down, they knew they were gonna lose, which in and of itself is a pretty good admission that, you know, what you did was not right or legal. So you're prepared to, to take it further. So what I believe happens now, and, and I could be slightly off on this a little bit, but because it was only a three judge panel at the us uh, international Court for trade, it would now be put in front of the entire court should they choose to accept the appeal, um, with the appellate process. I'm not sure how it works with the US International Court of Trade, but there is a possibility, I I suppose, that it could end up at the Supreme Court, and that's where things would obviously get a lot murkier.

They could either say, Trump does not have the authority to do this. It rests with Congress, or, yes, Trump can do this. You can't challenge it. If he declares a national emergency, then by God that's an emergency. And if the court, whichever court ultimately, uh, gets to make the decision, if that is the decision that they come to, then of course that gives Donald Trump the blank check to not only impose tariffs everywhere because he declared the national emergency, but it would expand his powers elsewhere as well, you know, declaring the national emergency using the Alien Enemies Act to get people out of this country faster without any due process. So this case is not finished by any stretch of the imagination. And of course, it could get so much worse depending on the outcome of it, because the outcome of it is not only going to affect the

Trade war, it could affect anything that Donald Trump does in the future on any issue where he chooses to declare a national emergency. If the courts ultimately say that yes, it's at his discretion, what constitutes an emergency, then we're pretty much all screwed at that point.